Free The Twilight Circus by Di Toft Page B

agreed JC, “but you have to admit, I’m not bad. What about this?” He got up from the table and turned his back to Nat. His feet left the floor and he appeared to levitate a good few inches in the air.
    â€œThat’s a trick, too,” said Nat. “A good one, but it’s a technique. Anyone can learn it.”
    â€œGood lad.” JC beamed, sitting down. “Which act unsettled you most?”
    Nat didn’t hesitate. “The Surrealias,” he said in a low voice, making sure one of them wasn’t standing behind him. “They were real cryptids, right? That wasn’t makeup or illusion.”
    â€œHarpies.” His grandpa nodded.
    â€œ
Harpies
,” said Nat, his eyes stretching wide. “What on earth are they?”
    â€œMythic beasts of ancient Greece,” explained his grandpa, “half bird, half woman. Also known as ‘Snatchers,’ who allegedly snatched people off the streets and took ’em to their deaths.”
    â€œNice.” Nat shivered.
    JC smiled. “You know yourself not to believe stuff like that. Most of those poor myth folk got an appalling press.”
    Nat grimaced. “Yeah, but their faces are really—” he started to say.
    â€œThat’s only when they’re in the air,” interrupted JC. “They look pretty ordinary when they land. Look.”
    Nat craned his neck to see where his grandfather’s gaze rested.
    A slim young girl stood talking animatedly to a group of people at the far end of the tent. A pair of iridescent, purply-green wings folded neatly at her shoulders.
    â€œYeah, dead ordinary apart from the
wings
,” said Nat bemusedly.
    â€œPure victims of prejudice,” mused his grandpa. “Theironly crime was to swoop out of the sky and steal food from people.”
    â€œLike
really
big seagulls,” piped up Woody.
    â€œI
knew
their wings had to be real,” said Nat. “I bet other people in the audience thought so, too.”
    JC shrugged. “People like us who’ve been exposed to people who are different don’t have a problem believing. But the majority of humans know nothing of the supernatural world. As long as they get value for their money and a pleasurable thrill from what they see, or what they
think
they see, they’re happy and we’re happy,” he said. “I tell them they are about to see the most incredible things they will ever experience, that all the illusions are
real
. But their modern, unimaginative brain will dismiss what their eyes see as impossible. Therefore they will remember it as a fantastic, but explainable, illusion.”
    Double bluff
, thought Nat, and grinned delightedly.
    â€œApart from that small thing, we’re like any other circus,” said JC. “We treat each other as family and we look out for each other. Any unlikely trouble from anyone outside and we move on. We trust our people not to draw attention to us. And like Woody, they use theirgifts for the good of others, never for the Dark Side.”
    Nat thought that sounded like just about the coolest thing he had ever heard. “So … er … Maccabee Hammer is safe, then?” he asked, relieved.
    JC laughed. “Most vampires are,” he said. “It’s just the odd few you’ve got to watch out for. It’s very old-fashioned to slurp human blood nowadays, not to mention awfully hard work. Unfortunately there are a few old-style vamps who enjoy spoiling it for all the others.”
    â€œSo most of the circus is made up of shape-shifters and cryptids?” asked Nat.
    His grandpa nodded. “And then we have the waifs and strays, asylum seekers or some people who are simply on the run.”
    Nat was silent.
Nothing simple about being on the run
, he thought.
    Woody was having trouble staying awake, and his huge jaw-unhinging yawns were catching. People were beginning to drift away, calling their good nights.
    Nat